The invention relates to a method and system for electronically soliciting bids for a large number of items of surplus merchandise and automatically evaluating responses to select winning bidders. More specifically the invention relates to a system permitting a seller of surplus parts to display and request bids for numerous items from a plurality of bidders who may bid on one or more of the items and thereafter evaluate all bids to optimally select winning bids to maximize revenue dollars or other business criteria. Bids are also analyzed to determine whether additional investment in surplus items is likely to result in additional revenue.
Currently, brokers and other businesses who offer goods for sale in a xe2x80x9cone-timexe2x80x9d bid process manually produce a xe2x80x9cbid offering sheetxe2x80x9d listing the items for sale and available quantities of each. The sheet is mailed or faxed to potential bidders who typically mark by hand their bid quantities on the bid offering sheet and mail or fax it back to the seller. When the cutoff date for bids arrives, the seller looks at all the bids which have been received, one item at a time to determine the winning bid or bids. After all items have been evaluated and the winning bidders determined, the seller generates a sheet for each bidder indicating which items they have won. The entire process is very time consuming and prone to errors. In addition, it is difficult to include winning information on one item when evaluating other items such as might be desirable in order to maximize revenue from particular suppliers or to minimize shipping costs or to achieve any other optimization criteria which involves evaluating more than one item at a time.
It is also desirable for the seller to analyze current and past bids to determine buying trends. Decisions can then be made regarding surplus parts for which further investment is not justified according to various business criteria based on buying trends.
Certain steps in the current process are easily automated, such as sending bid offering sheets by e-mail rather than mail or fax. In another example, Popolo in U.S. Pat. No. 5,715,402 describes a method and system for assisting sellers and buyers of spot metals. However, no coordinated system has been developed to solve the foregoing difficulties in soliciting and evaluating bids. The lack of such a system has therefore impeded the overall flow from sellers to buyers of goods which are sold by xe2x80x9cone-timexe2x80x9d bids.
In accordance with the teachings of the present invention, there is defined a method and system for electronically soliciting bids for surplus merchandise and subsequently evaluating in an optimal way the responses received.
It is believed that such a system would constitute a significant advancement in the art.
It is therefore a principal object of the present invention to enhance the e-business bid process art by providing a coordinated bid system with enhanced capabilities.
It is another object to provide such a system which permits visual display of items for which bids are solicited.
It is a further object to provide such a system which permits optimal evaluation of bids received and notification of winning bidders in a facile manner.
It is yet further object to provide such a system which permits optimal evaluation of bids received and notification of winning bidders in a facile manner.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a method for performing bid solicitation, bid evaluation, and bidder notification which is particularly adapted to e-business methods.
These and other objects are attained in accordance with one embodiment of the invention wherein there is provided a bid process, comprising the steps of listing a plurality of items for sale on a first spreadsheet, taking at least one digital picture of at least one of the plurality of items, importing at least one digital picture into the first spreadsheet, sending the first spreadsheet to bidders via e-mail, receiving a plurality of returned spreadsheets including bid amounts from the bidders via e-mail, combining the bid amounts from the plurality of returned spreadsheets into a second spreadsheet, and determining winning bids by activating a spreadsheet algorithm in the second spreadsheet.
In accordance with another embodiment of the invention there is provided a bid process comprising the steps of listing a plurality of items for sale on a first spreadsheet, taking at least one digital picture of at least one of the plurality of items, importing at least one digital picture into the first spreadsheet, sending the first spreadsheet to bidders via e-mail, receiving a plurality of returned spreadsheets including bid amounts from the bidders via e-mail, combining the bid amounts from the plurality of returned spreadsheets into a second spreadsheet, combining bid amounts from a previous plurality of returned spreadsheets received in response to a previous listing of a plurality of items for sale, into the second spreadsheet, and determining which items meet a criteria for further investment.